Odermatt Returns To The Top Of The Podium In Alta Badia GS

After a gruelling week of speed and technical racing that seemed to take its toll on Marco Odermatt by Sunday morning, the Swiss star joked that his energy was further drained just by watching the dramatic FIFA World Cup final later in the day.

The conditions were noticeably difficult today. The racers that started further back had more trouble maintaining speed, as seen by the first run time intervals. Regardless, if the racers were able to make it down without too many mistakes, cracking top 30 was possible. The sun came out to shine on the second run and the crowds filtered in, and the surface was noticeably better than first run, making for a very tight race.

But Odermatt somehow found enough in reserve to recapture top form in Alta Badia on Monday, winning his third giant slalom race of the season to increase his lead in the overall World Cup standings to 271 points over Norway's Aleksander Aamodt Kilde.

Leading by 0.60 seconds after an impressive first run on the Gran Risa piste, Odermatt survived a ragged second run that almost saw him go down several times to win by 0.20 seconds over Norway's Henrik Kristoffersen, with Slovenia's Zan Kranjec finishing third. "This was probably the biggest fight ever," Odermatt said. "I was so, so tired already at the start and it didn't get better while skiing."

Odermatt's victory capped off a long week in the Italian Dolomites in which he skied four races in five days, reaching the podium three times.

"Difficult, hard, exhausting," he said. "After already a week in Val Gardena and then coming here — two races in a row, four very difficult courses, a lot of turns. A 1:20 GS is very, very long and tough for the legs."

Kristoffersen had to be content with second place for the second day in a row, and tipped his cap to his Swiss rival.

"Marco is skiing really good, he's skiing fast," Kristoffersen said. "He's on a cloud at the moment, he's just floating around."

The Norwegian lamented that the race was lost in the first run, as the deficit of more than half a second didn't give him enough of a platform to attack on the second run. "I said after the first run that we should have been three or four tenths closer to Marco, because then you put so much pressure on him," Kristoffersen said."With six (tenths) it's a little bit too much of a buffer."

Kranjec moved up from fourth after the first run to finish third and record the podium finish that eluded him on Sunday, when he led after the first run but finished fifth. "I'm really happy about today," he said. "Yesterday after the second run, I was a little bit worried for today because I didn't know exactly why I was so slow in the second run. (Today) I make some changes in the second run, also in the equipment, and it worked good."

Switzerland's Loic Meillard dropped a spot from third to fourth, finishing 0.40 seconds off the podium.

Kristoffersen has been referring to the course as a "proper GS" throughout the weekend and that proved to be true again on Monday. The challenging Gran Risa piste caught out some of the world's best skiers, as Austria's Manuel Feller, Italy's Luca de Aliprandini and Sunday's winner Lucas Braathen of Norway didn't even reach the halfway mark of the first run before faltering and failing to finish. After a difficult first run on Sunday, Odermatt had no such problems on Monday and will now return to Switzerland for a well-earned break over Christmas.

"Five days at home, that's much needed after long weeks already in North America, straight to Val d'Isère, Val Gardena, Alta Badia," he said.

"Very hard time but a very nice time for sure, but looking forward to five days off."

The  U.S. Alpine Team tech men had a strong showing in Alta Badia with River Radamus leading the way in 10th place. Tommy Ford had a speedy second run and ended up in 15th place.

“It was a good step in the right direction,” said Radamus. “This is a really special hill for me. I always want to come and perform here. First run, I just didn’t feel the flow of the course, but second run I did not want to leave anything out there so I charged as hard as I could,” said Radamus. “I’m very satisfied with today’s race.”

George Steffey and Brian McLaughlin did not qualify for a second run.